Bremerton celebrates 'Robert "Bob" Montgomery Day'

Bremerton celebrates 'Robert "Bob" Montgomery Day'

Robert Montgomery, who has been part of the Bremerton and Kitsap County theater scene since 1950, will be honored by the city of Bremerton with a “Robert ‘Bob’ Montgomery Day” on March 12.

Bremerton Community Theatre, whose main auditorium is named in Montgomery’s honor, will host a free public reception for Montgomery at 7 p.m. that evening. Mayor Patty Lent made the official announcement of the honor at the March 5 City Council meeting.

Montgomery, 92, and his father opened their typewriter repair shop in 1946, after Montgomery returned from France at the end of World War II. He has operated the shop — the Bremerton Office Machine Company — in several different locations ever since.

His involvement in community theater began in 1950 when he was recruited to play a corrupt senator in a BCT production of “Born Yesterday.” According to a release from the theater, when he asked why he was being recruited, the reply was, “Because our first two choices just got drafted into the Army.”

From those unlikely beginnings, Mongtomery became a fixture at BCT, a relationship that continues to the present. He has acted and/or been part of production and crew in more than 145 shows, and continues to serve as archivist and active Board Member Emeritus. He was instrumental in the addition to BCT of the Robert B. Stewart Performance Space, which broke ground in June, 2010, and most recently hosted BCT’s production of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” in January.

The theater asks those interested in attending the reception to RSVP by March 7 (boxoffice@bctshows.com, 360-373-5152). Anyone interested in bringing a dish to share can contact Rana Tan (pc@bctshows.com).